Plant Gardens 101

Potato family
Solanaceae
Kap’si-kum. A genus of tropical woody plants yielding Red (but not black) Peppers, Tabasco, and Cayenne Peppers, as well as the milder peppers commonly grown as vegetables. Most are from tropical America.

Description
Leaves alternate, simple, without marginal teeth. Flowers white or greenish white, usually stalked and solitary or in 2- to 3-flowered clusters, generally wheel-shaped and 5-lobed. Fruit typically podlike with a thickish rind. Most are hot; all are edible.

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Purslane family
Portulacaceae
Por-tew-lak’a. Purslane . Low-growing, mostly trailing herbs, comprising about 100 species from tropical and temperate regions.

Description
Stems soft and fleshy, often reddish. Leaves alternate, small, thick, entire, often spoonshaped, 1-2 in. (2.5-5.0 cm) long. Flowers usually terminal, usually opening only in full sunlight, sometimes inconspicuous, sometimes showy. Calyx of 5 sepals. Corolla of 5 petals, in varying colors. Stamens numerous.

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Snapdragon family
Scrophulariaceae
A-lon-zo’a. Ten species of tropical American herbs grown as annuals outdoors or as greenhouse plants for their attractive, red, winter-blooming flowers.

Description
Leaves opposite or in threes. Flowers in terminal finger-shaped clusters, the corolla very irregular, 2-lipped, and turned upside down by twisting of its individual stalklets.

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Snapdragon family
Scrophulariaceae
Mim’you-lus. A genus of about 150 declining or erect herbs or subshrubs found in North and South America, Asia, Australia, South Africa, and very numerous in w. North America. Sometimes called Diplacus .

Description
Plants smooth or hairy, often sticky or clammy. Leaves opposite, with or without marginal teeth. Flowers showy, 2-lipped, often spotted, giving the effect of a face, growing singly from the leaf axils or in terminal racemes.

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Cucumber family
Cucurbitaceae
Laj-en-a’ri-a. A small genus of herbaceous vines, native in the tropics of the Old World and South America, related to the melons.

Description
Leaves broadly heart-shaped to ovate, with irregular margins. Flowers solitary, white, male flowers with long pedicle, female flower with ovary below petals.  

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Daisy family
Compositae
Ti-tho’ni-a. Ten species of tall sunflowerlike shrubs or woody perennial herbs native in Mexico and Central America and naturalized elsewhere in the tropics. One species grown as an annual in the North.

Description
Leaves alternate or sometimes opposite on lower stem, broadly ovalish, deeply lobed, or coarsely round-toothed. Flowerheads usually solitary on long, hollow stems, the disk flowers bisexual, fertile, yellow, the ray flowers neutral, golden to orange.

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Cucumber family
Cucurbitaceae
Ben-in-kay’sa. A pumpkinlike and tendril-bearing Asiatic vine. Known here for its ornamental fruit; in China it is the source of the Chinese preserving melon.

Description
Fleshy and creeping vine. Leaves alternate, large, and angled. Flowers solitary, yellow, large, the stamens and pistils never in the same flower. Fruit large, melonlike, but without a hard rind.

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Milkweed family
Asclepiadaceae
Ox-y-pet’a-lum. About 125 species of Central or South American herbs.

Description
Leaves opposite. Flowers with 5-part corolla, in open cymes.

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Pea family
Leguminosae
My-mo’sa. An immense genus of 400-500 species of mostly tropical American herbs, shrubs, and trees, only 2 much cultivated in the U.S.

Description
Leaves alternate, twice-compound, the leaflets numerous, usually very small, arranged feather-fashion. Flowers small, more or less tubular, in dense, ball-like clusters. Stamens protruding.

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Mint family
Labiatae
Ko’lee-us. About 150 species of foliage plants of the Old World tropics. In the Midwest, called the Foliage Plant.

Description
Mostly succulent herbs, with stems square, leaves opposite and toothed. Flowers in clusters of 6 or more, with a short 2-lipped calyx, lower lip with 4 teeth; corolla 2-lipped, the upper short with 2-4 lobes, the lower boat-shaped. Stamens 4.

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Phlox family
Polemoniaceae
Ko-bee’a. Tendril-climbing, tropical American woody vines, the species below quick growing and showy.

Description
Leaves alternate, compound, the leaflets arranged feather-fashion, the terminal one replaced by a branched tendril. Flowers solitary, on long stalks from the leaf axils. Corolla bell-shaped or cylindric, its limb 5-lobed.

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Carpetweed family
Aizoaceae
Me-sem-bri-an’thee-mum. Fig-marigold . Originally, the fig-marigolds made up a huge genus, but over the past 100 years, they have been divided into several separate genera. Mesembryanthemum contains the original species described by Linnaeus and 40-50 other species, the one below most widely grown.

Description
Leaves alternate or opposite, nearly cylindrical, some flecked with glistening specks. Flowers generally large and showy, often daisylike because of the great number of petals and stamens, mostly white, red, or yellow. Calyx tubular, with 4-5 rather leafy lobes.

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Daisy family
Compositae
Am-moe’bi-um. A small genus of Australian herbs, valued as an everlasting because its white blossoms do not fade with age.

Description
Leaves white, felty, alternate or basal. Flowers yellow, in chaffy heads that are solitary at the ends of the small branches and surrounded by silvery white bracts. No ray flowers.

How to Grow
Easily grown in ordinary garden soil. Start seeds indoors and set out when night temperatures are above 50° F (10° C). Before flowers are mature, cut and hang with heads down in a shady, cool place; when dry, they will hold their color almost indefinitely. This species prefers warm weather.

Ammobium alatum
Winged Everlasting . Bushy, to 3 ft. (1 m) high, the branches prominently winged. Heads 1 in. (4 cm) wide, the bracts petal-like and silvery white. Australia. Cultivar ‘Grandiflora’ has larger heads. Will self-sow in sandy soil. Tender perennial grown as a tender annual.

Bellflower family
Campanulaceae
Tra-kee’li-um. Widely grown perennial herbs comprising about half a dozen species from the Mediterranean region. Closely related to Campanula .

Description
Leaves alternate, ovalish, unequally toothed. Flowers in dense terminal cyme. Corolla tubular, its limb with 5 narrow lobes.

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Potato family
Solanaceae
Sky-zan’thus. Fringe Flower ; Butterfly Flower ; Poor Man’s Orchid . Chilean brittle annuals, comprising about 10 species.

Description
Leaves alternate, broadly lance-shaped, usually cut into many fernlike, light green segments. Flowers showy, in terminal, loose, many-flowered clusters, of many colors. Corolla margins of contrasting colors or shades, with streaks and spots of another color or shade at the base. Calyx 5-lobed, joined at the base. Corolla a short tube opening widely into 2 lips, the upper 2-lobed, the lower 3-lobed. Stamens 2, prominent.

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Amaranth family
Amaranthaceae
Eye-re-sy’ne. Seventy known species, chiefly tropical, the species below grown for its ornamental foliage and used mostly as a summer-bedding plant.

Description
Leaves opposite, stalked, generally ovalish. Flowers, rarely produced, woolly, chaffy or membranous, small, whitish, crowded in dense spikes that are gathered in branched panicles.

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Amaranth family
Amaranthaceae
Gom-free’na. A genus of about 100 tropical herbs related to Alternanthera and Iresine .

Description
Leaves opposite, oblong or elliptical, with minutely hairy margins. Flowers in dense, chaffy heads.

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Amaranth family
Amaranthaceae
Am-a-ran’thus. The amaranths are coarse, often weedy, mostly annual herbs. They are widely distributed.

Description
Leaves alternate, often colored in the horticultural forms, without marginal teeth. Flowers very small, without petals, but often conspicuous because congested in a chaffy, often brightly colored cluster.

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Daisy family
Compositae
Sen-ee’si-o. Groundsel ; Ragwort . Over 2000 species of herbs, shrubs, or small trees, and a few climbers, found throughout the world.

Description
Leaves alternate or basal. This large and diverse genus is difficult to define, the chief difference being in the rings of bracts that surround the head. These do not overlap each other, and the lower bracts are scale-like, giving a calyxlike appearance to the upper ring of bracts. Flowerheads generally yellow, but sometimes purple, red, blue, or white; solitary or in clusters. Heads often showy, composed of ray and disk flowers, but sometimes lacking ray flowers.

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Snapdragon family
Scrophulariaceae
Sim-ba-lay’ri-a. A genus of 10 species of generally prostrate, Old World herbs.

Description
Herbaceous stems and alternate or opposite leaves, sometimes lobed and veined finger-fashion. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, irregular, and spurred, usually small; throat nearly closed. Stamens 4.

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